By TON Nepal

The bartering over the distribution of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) lower house seats in the upcoming November 20 elections has been inappropriate as the members of the five-party ruling alliance have put numbers before everything else. The dominant characteristic of the upcoming parliamentary elections this time is set to be a fight for numbers and not for a clash of ideologies and ethics.

As a matter of fact, the alliance has the impression of a prickle of porcupines huddled together to save themselves from external enemies, but staying far enough not to prick each other. The problem with the alliance partners is worse as they do not even belong to the same hereditary group and are bound together by a common goal to garner and generate enough to get parliamentary seats to form the next government.

The Nepal government alliance continued companionship after the ouster of the former PM of Nepalis government but bthe alliance partners are not giving proper justification for their constant partnership for seat-distribution. When it was formed in the first half of 2021 last year. in the result of former PM dissolution of Parliament, the alliance had a very explicit political purpose to fight the anti-democratic antics of the former PM, who had led a brazen attack on parliamentary democracy not once but twice.

The current alliance successfully created a narrative and rightly so to counter the former PM to essential to safeguard democracy and for this the Supreme Court provided a legal cover to which promoted this narrative by showing former PM the exit door.

The alliance is being considered an achievement for Nepal's new democracy. Nonetheless the achievement soon turned into a mockery, and lately even a tragedy, as the alliance partners continue to stick together to put up a combined fight against CPN-UML chair. in the future elections. The relevance of the alliance was over the day the Supreme Court brought Oli down to size and installed in his place Current PM, the leader of the alliance that had sought to stop the former PM from doing further damage to parliamentary democracy.

However, only time will tell that the alliance is sticking together to achieve a higher democratic ideal or pursue its personal agenda. The answer is a definite "no". They are together for a very specific purpose: Garnering enough seats to keep Oli out in the upcoming elections so that they can form the next government.

It is still uncertain that the friendliness will remain when the Parliamentary elections are over. As so far, the alliance partners do not seem to have a clear strategy for the future afterward the elections. The alliance is more likely than not to meet the fate of the alliances that have hitherto been formed in Nepal for provisional political gains a unpleasant break-up once the interests of a partner or two are satisfied, or promises broken. And yet, the partners seem confident in their fallacy that they are not answerable to the people.

There is no assurance that the alliance will remain integral once the parliamentary elections are over because all the parties in the alliance wants to have a lion share of the government ministries. Even in the event that the alliance secures majority seats and forms the government, there is no telling if the alliance partners will remain faithful and trust worthy to each other as they become enmeshed the struggle for power. In such a case, Nepal will suffer deeply for this internally and definitely the country will be in chaotic condition as the alliance may lose the confidence of the masses at large.